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So, Spec Ops: The Line was... interesting? I mean in terms of gameplay it was basically your standard on-rails shooter, but the twist was great. Watching your guy's appearence deteriorate to reflect his own psyche, the loading screens gradually getting weirder and more abusive, the moment of deja vu and visions hinting something is not right. I would've loved to have gone into this thing totally blind, but if I had then I would've quit by the third chapter never knowing what it had in store. In fact when the game first came out, I imagine the only gamers who did see the message were the ones big on Call of Duty and such who thought they were buying one thing and instead kinda got another. Wondering what the reaction was there!

Yeah, I really liked Spec Ops. The gameplay was to the game what the story was to (the film) Equilibrium, i.e. just a vehicle for something completely else, Equilibrium was a carbon copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four - I think it even had John Hurt in it - just so they had a framework for the visuals and some gunplay; Spec Ops was a bog standard shooter and all the effort went elsewhere. Fair enough, I say, and although part of me feels like the 'it's a shit game because it's satirical' was a cop-out, another part does wonder how effective the message would've been had the game had better actual gameplay. Then again, maybe the message would've been that much better if you'd really enjoyed the game as a shooter... I don't know. In any case, a few parts actually really shit me up and it's been a long time since I've played a game that did that.

Played some Killing Floor on a LAN party recently. Pretty fun with 6 people, though you probably don't want us when the mutants/zombies arrive... We always start with a solid plan and strict jobs for each role. Then we end up in chaos, get separated, waste ammo or fail to get to the trader... On Normal difficulty... Yeah. Dying's fun too though :)

Just killed the emperor in Avernum. Now I have to make the tough decision to wait until the remake of Avernum 2 comes out (which should be 2015?), or go straight to 4,5,6.

I absolutely loved the game. He captured the essence of exploration, and I highly recommend it to any who are interested. Next time I play I might use cheats to max out cave lore and tool use at level one.

Just killed the emperor in Avernum. Now I have to make the tough decision to wait until the remake of Avernum 2 comes out (which should be 2015?), or go straight to 4,5,6.

I absolutely loved the game. He captured the essence of exploration, and I highly recommend it to any who are interested. Next time I play I might use cheats to max out cave lore and tool use at level one.

I have been wondering about these games, I do enjoy those old school RPGs. You had a crack at Avadon: The Black Fortress? I sunk 2 hours in it about 6 months ago,and then stopped playing for some reason, I think I enjoyed it.

Playing Serious Sam 1st and 2nd Encounter. The main difference seems to be that the 2nd Encounter does not take great pains to screw you over by spawning monsters for every single item. You'd pick up a flask of health or some ammo, the monsters would spawn, and by the end you'd find not only did you lose what you picked up, but you're actually worse off! This practically forced you into the bizarre strategy of saving before picking up any item to see if the end result was worth it.

Playing Serious Sam 1st and 2nd Encounter. The main difference seems to be that the 2nd Encounter does not take great pains to screw you over by spawning monsters for every single item. You'd pick up a flask of health or some ammo, the monsters would spawn, and by the end you'd find not only did you lose what you picked up, but you're actually worse off! This practically forced you into the bizarre strategy of saving before picking up any item to see if the end result was worth it.

The second encounter is far better in almost every regard, bar the fact the end boss is a wee bit smaller.

Finished Batman: Awesome Cabbage and it was rather fun. Ending I did not predict, kinda shocked me as well. "They... they cant do that!!!" etc... Maybe I'll go back in to finish the Riddler stuff, maybe not. Also have some Catwoman stuff to finish.
Can see what the fuss over her was now. Before I knew she was slightly over-sexy, but playing her made it all the more silly. Why did she have a visible panty line sewn into the outside of her suit? She has nice breasts, great, now why cant you do your top up? I want to walk over there... NO WALK! Stop wiggling stupidly. I find it kinda odd though as if it were some Japanese Anime / general Japanese "boob armor" type stuff I simply think "It cant be helped", but in Western games? Really irritating for some reason.

Finished Offspring Fling, which was gifted to me by RPS user Stirbelwurm through steamgifts (huge thanks!). It's pretty fun; it requires both puzzle-solving and fast reaction skills and it's quite charming. I thoroughly recommend it if you're a fan of the genre.

I also finally beat the first level of Super Hexagon (60.39 seconds). Took me 3 hours :P.

Playing some more Batman: Asheron's Call. It's... kind of boring, really. The plot is interesting for about thirty minutes, then the Joker takes over and it seems like I'm doing side quests ever since. Then I get to beat up various Batman villains that have no significance to the plot. Strange then counts down the in-game hours between the levels and it feels like the game is deliberately wasting my time.
The gameplay also suffers from Assassin's Creed syndrome. It's 95% identical to Arkham Asylum but you only get more gadgets and more enemy types. Most of them are fairly useless and if variety in combat didn't give extra XP I think I would never even use anything but the basic combat moves. It's very gimmicky. I shudder at the thought what the next game will bring. Batman will probably breath fire from his mouth and shoot lasers from his eyes.
The biggest disappointment is probably the Riddler puzzles. I don't like at all what they did with this. It's less of a sidequest and more of a collectathon. It makes the flag collection from the first Assassin's Creed look reasonable. Does every game need to have one of those nowadays?

In Batman: Accentuated Chest I generally find that the riddler puzzles are fun, but if they are annoying you just blank them it wont hold you back at all. It has lots and lots of optional content, and honestly if you feel like you are wasting your time maybe just blitz the main plot and try again in new game plus? There it really raises its game in terms of combat opponents and the need to use variety.

Edit: Catwoman is pretty dull, I wouldn't even bother, she cant even fly whoooosh!

Whaaat ... and I thought Batman: Anxiety Copulation was the rare case that did collectibles right. I mean, sure, there were a lot of them, but ... most of 'em felt challenging to get, they were mostly well hidden and there was a system in place that helped you to locate them. And about a dozen or so were really challenging.

What about those pigeons in GTA4?
Nothing says "wasting time" than trying to find a hundred tiny objects in a massive city. Seems to say a lot about game design these days. Too much of it seems to be geared towards "wasting your time" rather than showing us something interesting or giving us a sense of accomplishment. *sigh*

Edit: That being said, I'm off to go play GTA4 and Spec Ops: The Line.

I've heard mixed reviews about SO:TL, in that it's a mostly bland shooter with a fairly poignant story and surprisingly decent writing.

I have been wondering about these games, I do enjoy those old school RPGs. You had a crack at Avadon: The Black Fortress? I sunk 2 hours in it about 6 months ago,and then stopped playing for some reason, I think I enjoyed it.

I bounced off Avadon as well, after about an hour and a half. I don't think the introduction to the game is the best, I might try it again. Maybe it was combat, maybe it was the somewhat generic fantasy at the beginning, maybe it was that you started out at a place of moral relativism. I'll load up my old save and see what's up.

I would highly, highly recommend Avernum and Geneforge. The games have a great focus on exploration, and some really interesting thematic stuff.

Geneforge has a Baldur's Gate 1 style of exploration. You load fairly large, fairly freeform maps, and different exits lead to new fairly large maps. They have the benefit of being very open (particularly the first 2 games), and it's something where you discover the story rather than being dragged along by it, which is nice. The writing is decent (I enjoyed the writing better than recent Bioware games). It's a fascinating struggle that revolves around the amount of control wizards need to exercise over a society with genetic engineering (when they fuck up they make plagues), and has some eugenics commentary in it. I'd say geneforge has slightly more satisfying combat, because you can play as a shaper and make and remake NPCs to your desires. Since your creations gain experience / share experience with you, you frequently are faced with a fairly significant choice about whether you want to unmake an experienced low tier creature to get an inexperienced high tier creature. The answer (and optimal creature) changes with each game. Also it just makes you feel badass to walk around with two dragons (mine were Brutus and Cassius). You also have to deal with losing control of your creatures when they're terrified.

Avernum (or the one one I've played) is peerless in its understanding of the joys of exploration. About 1/3 to 1/2 of the game is played on one monolithic overworld map that is 90% open from the start (if you can avoid the monsters). It even has three separate win conditions, and lets you go back in the same playthrough to do all three. You're slightly too cash-strapped in it, but it's right on that edge where it keeps you constantly hungering for equipment upgrades. It has a wonderful system for hidden objects (the buttons are on the walls, you just have to be constantly looking for them), that also aids a sense of exploration. I would say combat and leveling are far more tactical in Avernum, with a greater emphasis on positioning.

The graphics are utilitarian at best. I'm not a bleeding edge / max out settings person, so I find them serviceable if not desirable. The interface is a bit annoying; no grab all button on chests, you have to manually open your inventory and add items from the floor rather than just clicking on them, but they're minor irritants that you quickly ignore. In both games he's good to add addendums to standard dialogue when you've accomplished something noteworthy, so the plot feels more reactive than games with ten times the budget.

As you can tell, I'm quite a fan of the games. I just finished Avernum so I have a propensity to value it higher, but I'd list their quality as Geneforge 2, Avernum, Geneforge, G5, then G4, and G3 is the weakest of the set by far. I don't know why I bounced off Avadon when I liked the other games so much, but I really do like the other games.

Best part, they have huge demos (Geneforge has about a 1/3 of the game), so you can try and see if you like them.